Re: Security in a shell that starts ssh

[Peter Cordes <peter@llama.nslug.ns.ca>]

On Thu, Jun 14, 2001 at 09:30:59PM +0200, Miquel Mart?n L?pez wrote:
> Hi David!
> Well, in my case the terminal is an VT-100, so it's connected directly to
> the one of the serial ports of the server, so nothing's going wildly to the
> network in cleartext.

 If you use really long RS-232 cables, it's pretty easy for someone to tap
the line and capture everything.  If the terminals are in other rooms, and
the cables go somewhere an attacker could get at them, you could be sniffed.
See "the cuckoo's egg" for an example of doing this.  (He used
printer/terminals, but you could use a laptop or two with a serial port for
each direction of the connection to capture everything even at high speed.)

-- 
#define X(x,y) x##y
Peter Cordes ;  e-mail: X(peter@llama.nslug. , ns.ca)

"The gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish the hours!
 Confound him, too, who in this place set up a sundial, to cut and hack
 my day so wretchedly into small pieces!" -- Plautus, 200 BCE